


Day 29: Prepare. Confront. Repel.

by GemmaRose



Series: Lost Light Fest 2018 [28]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Gen, Reunions, Siblings, Transformer Sparklings, Transformers: Lost Light 22
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-14 09:39:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16490186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Arson and Firestarter reunite, and Megatron is having A Day.





	Day 29: Prepare. Confront. Repel.

**Author's Note:**

> Am I misusing this prompt? Probably. Do I care? Not particularly. Have some flamethrower girls.

“What do you need us to do, Megs?” Rodimus said into his handheld comm, and Firestarter watched as his optics widened in response to whatever response he got. “Trust you? Why? What are you going to do?” another few nano-kliks of silence, then her carrier’s helm whipped towards the window, where a ship that looked an awful lot like the Lost Light dipped in purple paint was floating with _all visible weapons armed_.

“Brace yourselves, people, we're leaving!” Rodimus shouted, and Firestarter grabbed onto Slash’s arm as the first round of missiles exploded against the window. “ _Very dramatically!_ ”

“What is this? What's going on?” came the voice of the Grand Architect from the other side of the room, and Firestarter twisted to see a mech in medic colours standing in front of a handful of other mechs. She didn’t recognise any of them.

“We're _bailing_ , you piece of- wait. _What?_ ” Rodimus stared, mouth open, and Firestarter wondered what sort of history they had.

“ _Pharma?!_ ” First Aid exclaimed in surprise, giving the mystery mech a name.  
“ _You?!_ ” Ratchet shouted at the same time, sounding much more angry than shocked.

“Stop them.” The Grand Architect, Pharma, ordered his guards. They raised their guns, and Firestarter screamed as she ducked, arms coming up to guard her head even as Slash curled around her like a living shield. She heard a shout of pain, heard Ratchet yell Drift’s designation like her caretaker was dying, and then the window exploded and she didn’t hear anything but her own systems.

Slash held on tight, and for a few long nano-kliks the world was nothing but spinning darkness, flashes of light, and her friend’s arms locked around her. They hadn’t even been floating long enough for the cold to set in when something like gravity suddenly asserted itself, and Firestarter’s vents sucked in atmosphere as they were drawn into a weirdly familiar hangar bay. There was a moment of weightlessness as what must’ve been a tractor beam shut off, and then real, proper artificial gravity kicked in and they fell.

Slash yelped as she hit the floor back first, and Firestarter scrambled off her friend with a wince and half-articulated apology. One of Slash’s alt mode forelimbs was twisted at an unnatural angle, and the helm bit was badly dented, but once she confirmed that was all Firestarter relaxed. “You’ll live.” she said, offering a hand to pull Slash up onto her pedes.

“Still hurts.” the older femme whined, and Firestarter rolled her optics.

“Let me up on your shoulders, I need to get a helmcount.”

“Can’t you just let Mags do it?” Slash grumbled, but knelt so Firestarter could easily straddle her shoulders without further damaging her kibble.

“I’m in charge of us next-gens.” Firestarter bounced her heel against Slash’s chestplate. “It’s the principle of the thing.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve told me before.” Slash snorted, getting back to her feet. It wasn’t ideal, mostly since Slash was a mini too, but it was better than scanning from her natural optic level. It also didn’t take long to note who was missing, since three of the five were pretty damn big, one of them would’ve been loudly worrying at his injured carrier’s side if he wasn’t still on the other ship, and Blackout seemed just shy of yelling at his carrier, which only ever happened when he was worried about one of his sisters and Threnody was clinging to Cyclonus like red on rust.

“Down.” she tapped Slash’s helm, and dismounted as soon as she was sure she wouldn’t damage either of them. Popping an ankle servo out of alignment was the last thing she needed right now. Slash trailed after her to where Magnus was finishing up his own helmcount, and Firestarter relaxed slightly as she felt Minori’s field enmeshed with his caretaker’s. She’d assumed that’s where he was, since Magnus hadn’t removed the slow-growing sparkling from his chest compartment since they got captured, but it was nice to know she’d been right.

“How many?” he asked when she tapped his armour to announce her presence.

“I’m missing five. Aramis, Hightop, Bell, Wing, and Junior.”

“Five of us elders are unaccounted for as well.” Magnus’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Rodimus, Rung, Ratchet, Nautica, and Whirl.”

Well, at least Junior would be well defended by Whirl, and Firestarter trusted her teammates to protect Rung and Nautica in the event they couldn’t protect themselves.

“My apologies, everyone. That wasn’t the _gentlest_ of rescues.”

Firestarter turned to see who’d spoken, and her vocaliser let out a short trill of sheer terror. _Megatron_ was striding through the doors, a commanding presence in black and red and gunmetal grey, and looking at him she suddenly understood why people had always said she looked like her sire. She ducked behind Magnus’s legs, and his field filled with _comfort protection safety_ in a silent promise.

“Ultra Magnus.” Megatron smiled slightly as he approached, and Firestarter desperately looked for something else, _anything_ else to focus on. Only one other mech had come in with him, a slender white and blue one whose alt-mode she couldn’t discern but whose kibble reminded her a little bit of Rewind’s.

“I’d be worse.” Megatron chuckled, and Firestarter tensed right along with Magnus when Minori let out a squeal of delight. “What-?”

“It’s a rather long story.” Magnus sighed, opening the compartment in his chest and withdrawing Minori. Megatron stared, like he’d never seen a sparkling before, which Firestarter knew couldn’t be right. “Megatron, meet Minori Ambus, my ward.” Minori tried to reach for Megatron, still cheeping excitedly at the mech he only knew to be New and therefore Interesting, and Firestarter only put as much volume into the proto-glyph of Calm as she needed for the sparkling to hear it. He did calm slightly, but began to squeak excitedly again when Megatron reached out to poke him.

Firestarter quickly averted her optics, and this time they landed on the opening doors, which two mechs were walking through. One with a mono-optic and orangey brown paint, and the other... “Cali!” she cried, throwing herself out from behind Magnus’s leg and running over to her sorta-twin.

“Star!” Calidus beamed, catching her up under the arms and easily seating her on the shoulder not home to a firing assembly Firestarter could now freely admit she was kinda jealous of.

“You got a new frame.” she noted, hyper-aware of how her spark was synching itself to the spin of its twin.

“More like I mixed in my old one.” Calidus shrugged, and lowered Firestarter to the floor. “But I did get a cool new trick!” he straightened up, spun on one heel, and _shrank_. Firestarter’s jaw dropped as Calidus settled around Tailgate’s height. A quick shuffle of plating on his back tucked his doorwings down flat, pushing the exterior fuel tank and firing assembly up slightly, and it was like looking at a flamethrower with wheels on his shoulders. And also feet that looked a lot like Rodimus’s.

“Cal, that’s-”

“Arson, what are you doing?” Megatron said sharply, and Firestarter squeaked as she spun behind Calidus. Or, was he going by Arson again now?

“Reuniting.” Calidus/Arson took a step sideways and threw an arm around Firestarter’s shoulders, easily settling it behind her helm but in front of her fixed barrel.

“Reu- what?” Megatron’s optics narrowed, and Firestarter was suddenly very glad she’d gotten a visor at such a young age. If she’d looked like _that_ when she was squinting to see, no wonder everyone had thought she was going to take after her sire. “She’s from another _universe!_ ”

“And?” Calidus beamed, field bright and cheeky, like he know Megatron wouldn’t hurt him. The tank growled, but after a nano-klik his head dropped forwards and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You’re explaining that later.” he said firmly. “Who is your friend?”

“Sister, actually.” Calidus’s field brightened slightly, his frame warming against Firestarter’s side.

“I- I’m Firestarter.” she managed, though her vocaliser wouldn’t go about a bare whisper under the full weight of Megatron’s attention. “Of the Lost Light.”

“Firestarter.” Megatron said flatly, and she nodded.

“Rodimus named her.” Ultra Magnus added, and Megatron’s face scrunched up in some emotion she couldn’t identify. Velocity called for his attention, and Calidus giggled as he leaned in.

“Your carrier named you?” he whispered in her audial.

“I couldn’t’ve named myself ‘til I was half a meta-cycle old.” she shrugged, and Calidus gave her a weird look. “Anyways, Cal-”

“Arson.” he corrected. “When I’m little, I’m Arson.” his, no, _her_ data tags switched to display a different designation, and Firestarter nodded.

“So, anyways, Arson. What the _frag_ is going on?”

“Long story short? The Council turned Cybertron into a death machine and they want to start murdering your universe like they were doing to their own.”

Firestarter cycled her optics, then her audials, then ex-vented a heavy sigh. “It’s always _something_.”


End file.
